2017 Greater Geelong City Council election

The 2017 Greater Geelong local election was held on 27 October 2017 to elect 11 councillors to the City of Greater Geelong in Victoria.

More than 50 candidates contested across the four wards, including 19 in Brownbill.

The election was conducted by post by the Victorian Electoral Commission.

Background
The previous Greater Geelong City Council was elected in 2012, while Mayor Darryn Lyons was elected at a 2013 by-election.

The council was sacked by the Andrews Government in May 2016 after allegations of bullying, with administrators installed to manage city and council affairs as well as to remove cultural problems that led to the sacking.

While all other local government areas in Victoria went to the polls in November 2016 as per usual, Geelong did not. Instead, a Citizen's Jury was established to help determine a way forward, including deciding on the structure a future council should take.

Eventually, legislation was introduced and passed the Victorian Parliament to bring forward elections to October 2017 instead of 2020, as was originally planned.

Electoral system
For the first time in Geelong, councillors were elected to four multi-member wards:
 * Bellarine (3 councillors)
 * Brownbill (3 councillors)
 * Kardinia (3 councillors)
 * Windermere (2 councillors)

Before this, the council comprised 12 wards that each had a single councillor, as well as a directly-elected mayor. They were as follows:


 * Austin
 * Beangala
 * Brownbill
 * Buckley
 * Cheetham
 * Corio
 * Coryule
 * Cowie
 * Deakin
 * Kardinia
 * Kildare
 * Windermere

Proportional representation was introduced at the 2017 election, with instant-runoff voting used previously.

Results
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:right; margin-bottom:0" ! style="width:10px" colspan=3 | Party ! style="width:70px;"| Votes ! style="width:40px;"| % ! style="width:40px;"| Seats ! style="width:40px;"| Change ! colspan="3" rowspan="1" | Formal votes
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan="2"| Independent
 * style="width:70px;"|
 * style="width:40px;"|
 * style="width:40px;"| 5
 * style="width:55px;"| 1
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan="2"| Independent Liberal
 * style="width:70px;"|
 * style="width:40px;"|
 * style="width:40px;"| 4
 * style="width:55px;"| 1
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan="2"| Independent Labor
 * 1
 * 1
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan="2"| Greens
 * 1
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan="2"| Animal Justice
 * 0
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan="2"| Socialist Alliance
 * 0
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan="2"| Independent Nationals
 * 0
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan="2"| Greens
 * 1
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan="2"| Animal Justice
 * 0
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan="2"| Socialist Alliance
 * 0
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan="2"| Independent Nationals
 * 0
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan="2"| Animal Justice
 * 0
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan="2"| Socialist Alliance
 * 0
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan="2"| Independent Nationals
 * 0
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan="2"| Socialist Alliance
 * 0
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan="2"| Independent Nationals
 * 0
 * 0
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan="2"| Independent Nationals
 * 0
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan="2"| Independent Nationals
 * 0
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan="2"| Independent Nationals
 * 0
 * 0
 * 0

Election timeline
26 September 2017: Candidate nominations close

3 October: Windermere candidates forum at 94.7 The Pulse

10 October: Brownbill candidates forum at 94.7 The Pulse

10–12 October: Ballot packs are mailed out in the days around 10–12 October 2017.

27 October: Postal voting closes

28 October: Election Day